Manufacturers and Merchants in the First Half of the Nineteenth-Century

Abstract

In the first half of the nineteenth century, manufacturing in the arrondissement was still in the hands of out-putters and owners of small mills. They remembered the turmoil of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods, continued to believe in the virtues of hard work and frugality, and to expect their women to get involved in the business. Although the proportion of female-run businesses declined over the period, women’s roles did not change. Some were daughters dutifully assisting their parents, deputy husbands and intergenerational bridges. Others were free agents, many single, married or widowed women running their own business, alone or in partnership with people of their own choosing.